devpsy p4

• Neonatal


  Relating to newborn children (or other mammals)
• Cephalocaudal pattern


  Developmental sequence in which the earliest growth occurs at the top (the head) with the physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom

  
• Proximodistal pattern


  Developmental sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves towards the extremities
• Infants see objects before they can control their torso, and they can use their hands long before they can crawl or walk

  
• Infants control the muscles of their trunk and arms before they control their hands and fingers, and they use their whole hands before they can control their several fingers
• Brain


  • By the time the infant is born, the infant that began as a single cell is estimated to have a brain that contains approx. 100 billion neurons
  • The infant's head should be protected from falls or other injuries, and should not be shaken
  • Shaken baby syndrome includes brain swelling and hemorrhaging
  • EEG is best used to measure an infant brain's electric activity

  
• Cerebral cortex


  Has two hemispheres (left and right)

  
• Lateralization


  Specialization of function in one hemisphere or the other

  
• Newborns show greater electrical brain activity in the L-hemisphere than the R-hemisphere when they are listening to speech sounds
• Differences between infant and adult brains

  • Changes in neurons
  • Changes in regions of the brain

  
• Myelination


  The process of encasing axons with fat cells (prenatal-birth-adolescence)
• Synaptic pruning


  A natural process that occurs in the brain between early childhood and adulthood where the brain eliminates extra synapses
• Some areas of the brain such as the primary motor areas develop earlier than others such as the primary sensory areas
• Neurons in the frontal lobe become myelinated and interconnected in the first year of life, infants develop an ability to regulate sleep and reflexes

  
• Cognitive skills do not emerge until later in the first year
• The prefrontal region of the frontal lobe has the most prolonged development, of any brain region –with changes detectable into emerging adulthood

  
• Neuroconstructivist view


  The brain has plasticity and its development depends on context

  
• Children who grow up in a deprived environment may have depressed brain activity
• Newborns usually sleep about 18 hours a day. By 6 months of age, many American infants approach adult-like sleeping patterns. REM sleep—during which dreaming occurs—is present more in early infancy than in childhood and adulthood
• Sleeping arrangements for infants vary across cultures. In America, infants are more likely to sleep alone than in many other cultures
• Some experts believe shared sleeping can lead to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a condition that occurs when a sleeping infant suddenly stops breathing and dies without an apparent cause. However, it is generally accepted that the most critical factor in predicting whether an infant will develop SIDS is prone sleeping
• As infants develop their motor skills, so as their eating movement: from suck-and-swallow to chew-and-swallow
• Caregivers play very important roles in infants' early development of eating patterns
• Low maternal sensitivity when infants are 15-24 months is linked to higher risk of obesity in adolescence
• Benefits of breastfeeding


  • Provides ideal nutrition
  • Promotes bonding
  • Reduces risk of infections
  • Reduces risk of SIDS
  • Reduces risk of obesity
• Marasmus


  A wasting away of body tissues in the infant's first year, caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency
• Kwashiorkor


  A condition caused by severe protein deficiency in which the child's abdomen and feet become swollen with water; usually appears between 1-3 years old
• Dynamic systems theory


  Seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting
• Perception and action are coupled
• Motor skills are the result of many converging factors, such as the development of the nervous system, the body's physical properties and its movement possibilities, the goal the child is motivated to reach, and environmental support for the skill
• Motor development is far more complex than the result of a genetic blueprint
• Reflexes


  Automatic movements that govern the newborn's behavior
• The rooting and Moro reflexes disappear after three to four months
• Permanent reflexes include coughing and blinking
• For infants, sucking is an especially important reflex because it provides a means of obtaining nutrition
• Gross motor skills


  Involve large-muscle activities
• Although infants usually learn to walk by their first birthday, the neural pathways that allow walking begin forming earlier
• The age at which infants reach milestones in the development of gross motor skills may vary by as much as two to four months, especially for milestones in late infancy

  
• Fine motor skills


  Involve finely tuned movements
• The onset of reaching and grasping marks a significant accomplishment, and this skill becomes more refined during the first two years of life